TOP NEWS

Monday, March 20, 2006

Interview with Kamran Pourzanjani, PriceGrabber.com

Kamran Pourzanjani is the CEO and Founder of PriceGrabber.com, a Los
Angeles-based company that operates one of the leading online comparison shopping sites for consumer products. Kamran sold the company last year to Experian for $485M, and I recently had a chance to tour the company's offices and speak with Kamran. I thought it would be interesting to share the latest on the firm and get Kamran's perspective on the firm's success.

Ben Kuo: Thanks for the interview! What's the latest at PriceGrabber - it
looks like you are spreading out both into new categories like travel, as
well as into other countries?

Kamran: We are constantly expanding into new verticals, new geographies,
new products and services or developing innovative functions that help
consumers shop smarter. One of the great things about comparison
shopping is that it applies to just about any product and service that
consumers may be purchasing, so there are a lot different areas where
you can take this technology and concept. The new PriceGrabber Autos
channel is a great example of how we now help shoppers find a great
price on a new car, and how we are continually bringing comparison
shopping to new categories.

Another great thing about comparison shopping is that notion of shopping
smarter resonates with all consumers around the world. We are fortunate
to have so many options for growth ahead of us and we fully intend to
capitalize on them.

BK: This is an intensely competitive market, with many competitors and a
lot of marketing dollars being spent to drive traffic to online properties.
How have you handled that competition?

KP: One of the byproducts of creating a successful business model is the
competition that you intrinsically build with it. Sometimes the number
of competitors and the intensity of competition seem to be directly
correlated with the level of success that you achieve as a business.
However, there are often ways to create differentiators that can give
you the edge over your competitors. We are among the handful of original
companies that created the concept of online comparison shopping as it
exists today. This gave us a first mover advantage and critical mass
before the space got too crowded with competitors. Additionally, from
the beginning we led the industry in terms of innovation and user
experience. The first mover advantage combined with our unwavering
commitment to be a consumer centric site has helped us to build a
reputation as a trusted source for shoppers and become the comparison
shopping site of choice for consumers and distribution partners. All of
these have helped us grow through word of mouth among consumers, which
means our revenues as a company are not as dependent on traffic
acquisition. In essence, we believe our innovation and our strong
relationship with our organic users created a strong position for us in
the market.

BK: Let's talk about your acquisition a little bit. How did the
acquisition of PriceGrabber come about, and why did you decide to go with
an acquisition?

KP: As a pioneer and leading online comparison shopping service with high
profitability for more than 21 consecutive quarters, we have been on
companies' radar screens as a potential acquisition target. Companies
were interested in our organic traffic, technology and innovation hyper
growth. However, over the years we were not convinced that the timing,
the terms or the acquiring entity would be a good match for PriceGrabber.
In 2005, as we were considering our options for growth, the Internet M&A
activities caught fire particularly in the comparison shopping market. The
level of interest in our space was tremendous as I believe many companies
came to realize the prominence of comparison shopping and the full
potential of the market. As we started to interact with various parties
for a merger and/or acquisition we started to look at synergies in terms of
vision, growth strategy, infrastructure and company culture. In Experian
we found a company that really
understood what we were trying to accomplish, shared our vision and
passion for comparison shopping and had the worldwide resources and
infrastructure to help us grow internationally. We believe that with
Experian we will be able to grow faster and provide a more compelling
comparison shopping solution for consumers around the world.

BK: What was the most challenging thing about starting and making
PriceGrabber successful?

KP: The challenges change as the company grows and evolves. Early on,
when we had only a modest initial capital (we raised only $1.5M in
capital) the challenge was to break away from a crowded and extremely
well funded group of competitors by attempting to change the industry.
As a result, we focused on innovation, introducing ground breaking
functions and providing the best comparison shopping experience to
consumers to differentiate ourselves from our competitors. We also
focused on high ROI for merchants' marketing dollars, and this was
another part of our strategy to differentiate with competitors for the
merchant. Finally, another challenge was to do all this while focusing
on generating revenues and achieving profitability as soon as possible.

BK: What advice would you give entrepreneurs trying to build their
businesses?

KP: If someone has already started a business, then they have taken perhaps
the most important step and that is committing to their vision. Many
entrepreneurs fail to take that very first step either because of their
own insecurities or because of all the bystanders and naysayers with
their many reasons why the vision or business is not going to work. But
after having committed to a vision, the ability to execute is extremely
important. This is represented by the team you build and the people you
choose to share and build your vision. Believing in yourself and
following your instincts is also crucial in being able to take risks and
stay true to your vision. It is important to always maintain your
integrity - your reputation starts building from the first day you start
a business. And finally, set your goals and stay focused while striving
each day to inspire and motivate your team.